With bad weather forecasted for today and especially tomorrow and Friday, Dad decided trying to make it to Norfolk was too risky.  To be on the safe side, he rented a car in Morehead City this morning and began a 7 hour drive home.  We will miss him - especially on "anchor detail".  So now it's down to Captain Phil, Ollie, and me.  We left Morehead City at around 9am in a light sprinkle and about 40 degrees.  We had the current with us motoring up the Adams Creek canal and were through Adam's Creek and into the Neuse River by about noon.  We were making such good time, we decided to head up the Neuse and into Bay River.  We are now anchored in Gale Creek on the north side and near the head of Bay River.  The "silver bullet" (generator) has been running for about an hour, we have transferred fuel from the 150 gallon aux tank to the 55 gallon main tank.  We all are enjoying our favorite adult beverage and Phil is reading and Ollie is playing with his phone. The forecast is for NNE 15 to 25 tomorrow so we plan to cross the Pamlico river and head into the Pungo River.  Near the head of the Pungo is Dowery Creek Marina where we plan to stay tomorrow night.  Tomorrow should only be a short 30 mile day.  We have not had sun for 3 days now and it has been raining off and on.  The wind and rain is supposed to pick up tomorrow and Friday but the forecast is for sun and warmer temps starting Saturday.  We can't wait. 

Ever try typing on a keyboard that is 45 degrees?  Weighed two anchors with very muddy 150' rodes this morning at 7:30am - on an icy deck.  What a mess.  Underway now, headed north. Just passed the dreaded inlet where Pintita ran aground on the way south (green 61a).  The buoy has since been moved from the east side of the ICW to the west side. 

We are underway again.  Left the dock at Masonborro YC at around 8am and stopped for fuel at Wrightsville Beach.  Wrightsville Beach seems to be a very affluent area with lots of very nice homes and marinas etc.  Our plan is to go just 37 miles today to a large anchorage just NW of the New River Inlet (south of Moorhead City by about 40 miles).  Last night low temp was around 50 and it's currently around 55 with SW winds around 15.  The wind is supposed to "haul" around (CW) to the west and then NW and begin blowing this afternoon and evening. Well,  its now 6:30pm and the wind did haul - and picked up to 15 to 25 from the NW.  We dropped the anchor (both of them) at about 5pm and have been running the generator (for heat ever since).  The temp has dropped to around 40. It's nice to be in safe.  It is howling outside and the boat is healing (under bare poles) from side to side.  Tomorrow will be a long day to get past Moorehead City and up to Adams Creek.  From Moorehead City on will be familiar territory for me from my trip there two years ago.

Given all the talk about cold weather coming from up north, we decided to make today a boat work day.   Having temps in the 60s, sunny skies, and light winds helped in the decision.  This morning, Captain Phil did laundry and went got a ride to the grocery store with one of the marina employees.  We began working on sail slides around 9am.  Every one of the slides on the boom had broken and 6 or 7 on the mast.  It appeared that UV in the sunlight had caused the plastic in the slides to become brittle over time.  Ollie had ordered 15 new slides for the mast from Sailrite.  A couple weeks ago, we realized the slides for the boom were a different size so he ordered 15 of those.  We used all but 2 on the boom.  Anyway, it's nice to know the mainsail is now fully attached to both the mast and boom.  Tonight we ate Ollie's Wife Ann's 2 x 4 soup, French bread and a salad.  The soup was a real hit. During and following the movie, we watch "The Wild Wild West".  Tomorrow, we plan to leave Masonborro around 8am for a short 37 mile motor up the ICW to some anchorage I'm not yet aware of.  

After almost 12 hours of sleep, it was up at the crack of dawn for a planned 65 mile day - hoping to get to the Wrightsville Beach area of NC. As I type, Captain Phil is preparing a gourmet breakfast of smoked salmon and beagles (with lots of toppings).

It's now almost 5pm.  It's been a long day of motoring.  Fighting a 3 to 4 knot current for several miles north Cape Fear didn't make it any easier.  From the Cape Fear Inlet, the ICW joins the Cape fear River for about 5 miles and we passed through at max ebb (see video).  We are approaching the Masonborro Yacht Club and Marina where we will stay overnight.  This was the location where the Pintita stayed for a week, waiting for a weather window to head offshore for the passage to St. Thomas (last November).  I think this might be a little nastalgic for Captain Phil since he has now completed a loop from which he left for his voyage.

Spent the night at Barefoot Landing Marina, along the ICW at Myrtle Beach.  The "marina" is really nothing more than a floating dock about 10' wide and about 300' long that runs parallel to the waterway on the east side.  The dock master was very helpful and even drove us to the NAPA store for oil in the morning.  Not much for amenities but right next to a large shopping center with lots of restaurants etc.  As we approached the dock, Ollie's friend Chuck was waiting.  He jumped aboard and had the problem isolated in 20 minutes and repaired in about an hour.  Then, the 5 of us went over to Ollie's house for a fantastic pasta dinner (and, for me, shower, and laundry). Thanks Ann and Ollie!!  Phil and Dan and I came back to the boat for the night.  This morning, we did boat work till around noon - changed the engine oil, cleaned, tidied up the new VHF power wiring, ate breakfast, planned our trip for today and tomorrow.  We only motored for 3 hours today. The current was with us and we made 20 miles to the Ocean Isles Marina - a very nice marina, primarily for small boats. They have inside storage for over 400 runabouts and docks for only about 20 larger boats. Very nice staff and facilities.  After an "exhausting" day, all but Dan had fallen asleep by 8pm and we were all in bed by 9:30.

One of these days, I'm going to document all the options and challenges that exist with communications and data transfer on the trip. We have an amazing number of devices and methods for both but 90% of the time, we don't have internet and only about 50% of the time, we have phone service. 

We were late getting into an anchorage last night (it was almost dark and rainy) at a little after 6pm.  We had hoped to make it to Georgetown but were 3 hours short because of the tug/barge event yesterday.  We must make it to Myrtle Beach tonight (Ollies wife is preparing a hot meal for us) so we were up at 5:30am this morning and underway in the dark at around 6am.  We expect to make it to some marina around 6pm.  The temp this morning was 37 which made hauling the anchor, and motoring for the first two hours lots of fun.  We MISS the Caribbean!  It's now almost 10am and the sun is out so it's much better.  A nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast helped a lot with morale. 

It's 5:30pm and we are at the marina in Myrtle Beach. I'm sitting in a little hut about 1/4 mile from the boat because the wifi doesn't reach there.  It turned out being a nice sunny day but cool all day. Tonight is supposed to be cold and tomorrow a high in the low 50s.   I believe we will be motoring up the waterway until we get to Norfolk.